On Oct. 16, 2017, eight Marshfield High School students took part in this year’s Missouri Constitution Project. Four of MHS’s newspaper staff, seniors Alyson Ayers, Savannah Clair, Tai Keowan and junior Jordyn Koons acted as reporters on the journalism team. The other four students, junior Kyndal Davis, seniors Brett Moore, Jack Morelock, Nick Taylor, acted as the crime scene investigators (CSI).

The story for the mock crime scene was there was a bank robbery in Kentucky where $100,000 was stolen and the bank president had disappeared. Then there was a “crash” in the high school’s front parking lot and the officers, who were played by the students in this case, were called to collect evidence and see if the accident and the robbery were connected.

After the CSI team collected evidence and talked to “witnesses,” played by MHS drama students seniors Elijah Biggers, Kelly Lyons, and Caleb Mullins, there was a mock press conference, where the reporting students asked the “officers” questions about their findings. Concluding the press conference, the journalism team wrote an article and a short broadcasting statement to hand to the judges.

On Oct. 23rd, 2017, there was a mock trial where MHS students, juniors Emily Whitehurst, William Snider, senior Lane Williams, and freshman Chandler Zimmerman  tried to prove that the criminal, “Darren Felon,” was guilty of kidnapping. Additonally, the journalism team wrote a story covering the trial.

The MHS students participating in the Missouri Constitution Project will find out if they qualified, against eleven other Missouri high schools, to compete in Jefferson City on Nov. 8, 2017.